Owner Wants Car Princess Diana Died In Back ... So He Can Sell It as Souvenir

The owner of the car in which Diana, Princess of Wales, died is demanding it is returned to him — so he can sell it as a souvenir.

Jean-Francois Musa said he believes he can get more than $1.9 million for the wrecked Mercedes.

Musa owns the Etoile Limousine company which rented the car to Diana and Dodi Fayed in August 1997.

After their deaths in an apparent accident, the car was shipped to Britain and is believed to be in a garage in southeast London.

U.K. and French authorities have been refusing to return the wreckage to Musa, prompting him to launch legal action.

He claims he has been told he waited too long to ask for it back — when he insists he was simply being patient in order to help investigators carry out their inquiry into the crash.

Musa said he has been offered around $36,000 by insurers in France to write-off the vehicle but said he does not want to see somebody else make a fortune from it.

"When the crash happened I didn't even think what I could do with the car," he said.

"At first I was thinking it should have been given to Mr. al Fayed because his son died in it.

"Then I thought maybe it should be put in a museum. Now I want to sell it. We have been told a lot of people would be ready to pay a fortune for that wreck. It is an exceptional wreck, like the one James Dean died in."

His court appeal will apparently begin in Paris next month.

Meanwhile, former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens is due to publish his report into the crash on Dec. 14.